God was Murdered

I absolutely love Cricket, Australia & Steve, but more than any sport, country, or human, I love honesty. I’ve played a lot of sports in my life, but before all those sports arrived in my life, there was one sport that defined the word sport - you're spot on, it was Cricket. I looked up to ridiculously superhuman players - Lara, Warne, Dravid, Cronje, Azhar, Tendulkar, McGrath, Akram. They could do no wrong. All these players, I realized over the years, had flaws like me & you.  Azhar & Cronje broke my heart when they got involved in match-fixing in early 2000. That destroyed cricket for me. In February 2000 I moved to Australia. The way people played sport - any sport - was breathtakingly beautiful. Unlike Gavaskar [who played for ‘draws’] & Tendulkar [who played for ‘milestones’], Aussies played to ‘win’ - they played for the ‘team’. It was infectious & impossible not to fall in love with Australian killer instinct. Then started the jugg...

I don’t recall the precise date, but I know it was March, like it is now, of 2006. That’s 12 years ago. People say anyone who’s been a friend for longer than seven years is family. But, I’ve been friends with about 100-odd humans for 7-odd years now. I don’t think time alone makes someone family. How those years were lived is the defining factor. How two hearts interacted is the only thing that matters. You’re family & 12 goddamn years we’ve been together - bloody colossal. I reckon I wouldn’t be wrong in pronouncing ‘You & I’ are the only person with we both call family who wasn’t pre-decided by 'blood' or formed by 'making love'.  You & I love our blood families in our own ways. You & I have fallen in love with a girl with intensity fiercer than 2008 stock market crash. You & I have loved - You & I have been destroyed by its fire. You & I are still here. Far away & together. You have no idea how much I want the darn tele...

It was the winter of 1997 - January I reckon. I was in Grade X. A friend whose name I no longer recall informed me ‘I won’t be coming back.’ He wasn’t going to return to boarding school after the board exams in March. He wasn’t a close friend, yet I felt a vacuum. This was the first occasion I had ever felt this uneasy feeling about someone disappearing forever. This was the first occasion I consciously thought I would be losing a human I had shared food, classroom  & washroom  with. I recall sitting pensively on the academic block’s building’s pavement. Mr. Goel [our House Master & Maths teacher] noticed me. He came & sat next to me. He asked what was I reflecting so seriously about.  I told him. Then he said something I’ve never forgotten - mainly because life doesn’t let me. ‘We meet to depart.’ From that March of 1997 to March of 2018, people have met & left & they will continue to leave till it’s time for me to leave Eart...